Although former Karnataka chief minister S.M. Krishna is in charge of what his handlers like to think is the weighty external affairs ministry, the consensus is that the “Son of Somanahalli” got the portfolio because he was considered a malleable lightweight who would just be glad he got the high-profile job and not come in the way of a prime minister who had made “foreign policy” his legacy issue.

(That, and the fact that the Congress high command had to repay him for his “contributions”.)

A fortnight ago ago, news of his threatening to sue The Times of India for mentioning his name as among those who would be indicted by the Lok Ayukta in the illegal mining scam, made it to TV news bulletins. Six days ago, the litigious advisors guarding his carefully coiffured image, advised him to threaten to sue the news agency PTI for calling him “absent-minded” in a news story which showed him, well, absent-minded in the Lok Sabha.

Admittedly, one must take into account Krishna’s age. After all, at 79, he is the oldest member of the Manmohan Singh team. The fact that he still has the energy to fly off to distant countries speaks enormously of his stamina. Still, there is such a thing as calling a spade a bloody shovel, and it is clear that Krishna, used as he was to the kid-glove treatment at the hands of the Bangalore media, is being thoroughly exposed on the national stage.

What is the one question you are dying to ask the patron saint of IT-BT after his latest gaffe?

Like, is he the first human being who nods in agreement with what he is about to say? Like, does he demand frappe from his son-in-law’s Cafe Coffee Day whereever his work takes him? Like, is it true that he turned down the Oscar award this year for the best performance in a foreign language?

16 comments

In recent times, well known political leaders from all the three major political formations in Karnataka whether it is SMK, BSY, or HDD have been in the news for the wrong reasons. It does seem like a major fall from the Nijalingappa or the Hegde days.

No sane person will want to die to ask a question to this man. High time that this ineffective man is shown the door.
From the moment he “shook hands” with the Pakistan FM, the guy is in his own DreamLand… Eee touchalli, Yeno idhe..

Churmuri is anti-SMK only because he didn’t get a G-category site in Bangalore. Otherwise it would have been all praise. A small human error is being made into a national issue. Why?

He extended his foreign tour by a few days for personal benefit. So what? CEOs get paid several crores and likewise minsters get perks. How much do editors get? Rs. 1 crore a year?

Whats the issue here? A human error. Was there any corruption/ mismanagement or policy error? No. The actual cause is his effort to clean up corruption in Foreign Ministry. People who are hampered by this are trying to get him moved out of the ministry.

He was born in a non-descript village called Somanahalli in Maddur and yet went on to study international relations at George Washington University in Washington D.C. with Fulbright Scholarship. Fulbright program has the more Nobel Laureates in US than any other program. GW Univ. is also the place where Colin Powell and several hundred notable Americans went. He achieved all this in an age when there were only bullock carts on Karnataka roads and no international airport in Bangalore.

As CM he ushered in IT revolution in Bangalore. IT has been in India since 70s in Mumabi-Pune area. But why did the boom happen in Bangalore in 2000s which then nobody outside of South India had heard of. Today almost every American knows where Bangalore is!

Many in Blr are aware of Coffee Day’s true ability to change the colour of money. The promoter has obviously used his proximity to power to the brim. Nothing strange, considering how Yeddi openly helped his sons and family too. Rumours have also done the rounds on the ownership of several IT firms including MindTree, Kshema Technologies as well major real estate assets and Technology Parks too! Swiss accounts, investments through Mauritius..etc will always be unknown.

Not surprisingly, except for a few stray tamasha cases, IT sleuths or the judiciary look the other way and conveniently ignore the most crooked in our society, be it the BJP or the Cong-I

was the reason for rajkumar’s demise for his late action after a month.
promised to make bengaluru as singapura ; till now it hasn’t got a metro
markets opened and he while wearing wigs and opening kaveri gates to tamil nadu straight from mandya ,keeping old mysuru still dry ,got the fame of IT revolutionary.
was the first to be caught in 5 star hotel during austerity drive.
takes longer than usual time in shaking hands of hillary clinton and rabbani khar.
misunderstands questions and reads other scripts even in other languages.

what could have happened?
If it was American media they would have speculated the cause, Indian media is still naive or compelled to act naive.
well he may get medication in US before retirement from congress.

As usual SMK’s idiot supporters are attributing uncommon achievements to his leadership. He simply donated land that belonged to the government for a song and collected shares from the same IT companies. Some well-struck RTIs should ferret this information out.

‘Donating’ land to IT companies was wrong. So ironic that you make such a comment on an IT enabled medium!

Perhaps you would have appreciated if he had donated it to temples or even mutts. Perhaps you should stick to ‘inland letter’, post card and ‘trunk call’.

All this sarcasm only because he isn’t a brahmin and yet excelled as an administrator. You believe that only brahmins are entitled to ‘merit’. Ironic that brahmins were the maximum beneficiaries of his work. Yet you people are ‘all praise’ when it comes to Vajpayee who’s only achievements were Pokhran and Lahore Bus. The latter ended in Kargil and the former, there is no independent confirmation except for DRDO’s blanket of nationalism over it.

SMK was caught with his foot in his mouth on several occasions. The latest in the series was when he said that Dr. Mohammad Khalil Chisti was detained in Pakistan and it was a question to be considered by the government of Pakistan on “humanitarian grounds” while actually that Pakistani doctor was lodged in a jail in Ajmer, Rajasthan! Such gaffes only reinforce the harsh truth as told by Aristotle that since just as the body gets affected by old age the mind also gets affected by old age those who are in decisive positions should not continue in such key positions after they become senile. Our power-hungry politicians of SMK’s ilk will do well to pay heed to Aristotle’s advice.

I dont want to comment on other things. Though, just thought of an uninteresting story of an old man from Karnataka. He didnt have his studies in American universities, but in Chikkaballapur, Bangalore, Madras and Pune. I dont think many Americans or Europeans ever heard of him, and definitely he didnt attract Multi-National Companies to Bangalore or India. His name is some Visweswaraiah. (I have him looking at me from an old Calendar hanging on my wall, while I type this.) I heard he used to blow off the candles he used for official purpose, and had different set of candles for his personal reading, when he was Diwan of Mysore. Wont it wet your eyes, If you think of such past quirks of a foolish old man, in an era, when we consider, our emperors are entitled to enjoy pleasure trips at our expense?

Not many know SMK is an avid tennis lover. He take’s time off every evening if he can to play tennis.

During his CM days in bangalore ( not bengaluru ) he & I as Bangalore Club members played tennis for a little over many week days & week days when Vidhana Soudha was a spectator to a few able politicans such as SMK himself. He used to walk like an ordinary club member around the courts and back to his car. No security at all. Not even a single guard except his personal assistant and his driver. Hence it is natural that SMK chose to extend his tour for attending the Wimbledon as is natural like we office goers use our office internet for watching IPL/ T20 etc etc. I can vouch for the simplicity of this man.

Yes he may not be as “clean” as a tax payer would want a politican to be, but he is definitely an ANT in front of all the gowda-reddy-BSY’s elephants when it comes to corruption and amassing of tax payer money.

Recent incidents of him goofing up is attributable to all senior citizens. Nothing new about that. Yes, it is critical that an international audience may get a wrong idea of a central level minister (damn our indian media) speaking something unrelated, but we all make mistakes don’t we..? Even if his p.a, Secretary, naukar-chakar remind him that “Sir, do this and not that” it would be further absurd.